Texans GM Rick Smith: “I Absolutely Know Who I Want” At No. 1 Overall

Texans GM Rick Smith confirmed that he already knows who he would take with the No. 1 overall pick.

“I absolutely know who I want,” Smith said during an interview with Fox Sports Southwest, via HoustonTexans.com. “I know the guys we like. The fortunate thing about having the first pick is I’ve got the pick of the litter, so I will know exactly who I want at that point.”

Smith added that he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of trading back if the opportunity presents itself.

“Now where the game is played is if there’s an opportunity to move and, in this case, obviously to move back if somebody else wants to come up to that first pick,” Smith said. “Then you weigh what the opportunities are versus who the individual is that you want to take and what that value is relative to the value that somebody might be offering you. But as you move through the draft, obviously you don’t know who’s going to be picked when.”

The fact that Smith has already decided on who he would take at No. 1 overall shouldn’t come as much of surprise, especially with the additional time teams have to evaluate players before the draft.

John McClain of the Houston Chronicle has said that he expects the Texans to ultimately decide between Jadeveon Clowney and Johnny Manziel if they were to keep the pick, but appears to be leaning towards Clowney.

McClain adds that Blake Bortles and Khalil Mack will most likely be on their radar if they were to trade down.

According to McClain, the Texans would likely be asking for a first, second and fourth round pick to go along with first round selection in 2015 from the Falcons for them to move up to No. 1 overall.

For what it’s worth, we have the Texans taking Clowney in the first round of our most recent 2014 NFL Mock Draft.